A self-styled prophet in Bulawayo was jailed for 3 months by the Western Commonage court after he pleaded guilty to stealing a congregant’s Nokia Lumia and selling it for $7 because he wanted “quick money.”

Givemore Mujeyi (23) of Paddonhurst suburb took Mr Shakemore Marange’s phone while they were at a prayer meeting at Marange’s home in Matshobane suburb under the pretext that he wanted to pray over it as it was the source of his misfortunes.

Western Commonage magistrate Ms Tancy Dube heard how Mujeyi ordered Marange to wrap the phone in a white cloth before he put it in a spare bedroom and asked people not to open the room.

Mujeyi told the court that he stole the phone and sold it for $7 because he wanted quick money.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of theft and was sentenced to three months in jail. The magistrate said Mujeyi was not fit to perform community service as investigations showed that he did not have a fixed place of residence.

The prosecutor, Mrs Thembeni Mpofu said on Thursday last week, Mujeyi attended a prayer meeting at Marange’s home.

“During the meeting he asked Marange to wrap his phone with a white cloth and give it to him so he could pray over it because it was the reason why things were not going well in his life.

The court heard that Mujeyi put the phone in a clay pot, prayed over it and later asked to put the clay pot in a spare bedroom so that no one could see or touch it.

Marange said he could not believe he had been tricked by a church member.

“For about three days no one opened the spare bedroom. I later thought l should check on the phone since it had been three days and we had not heard anything from Mujeyi. When l got into the room there was no phone in the pot,” he said.